APA - PA Southeast Section Blog

Registration Deadline Extended and Additional Professional Credits Added for Active Transportation Forum in Chester County

Thu, 24 May 2012 02:32:21 +0000

On June 6th, the Transportation Management Association of Chester County, Chester County Planning Commission, and Chester County Cycling Coalition are hosting an informational session at the School at Church Farms in Exton, PA. The registration deadline has been extended and additional professional credits have been added. You can now earn 3.5 AICP CM credits (pending) and 5 P.E. Professional Development Hours. Please register at www.tmacc.org to reserve your spot.

The Active Transportation Forum will include presentations on the Brandywine Trail, Paoli Trail Connections, Kennett Pike Bikeway, and the Chester Valley Trail. A panel during lunch will discuss these types of projects from an advocacy, environmental, and business perspective. Additionally, there are optional sessions planned for the afternoon; DVRPC: Regional Trails Program, Shifting Gears, and Funding, Chester Valley Trail/ Exton Trailhead Tour, or Chester Valley Trail Tour by Bike.

The Next Generation of Manufacturing in Philadelphia

Thu, 24 May 2012 02:26:00 +0000

If the word “manufacturing” conjures up images of tall smoke stacks and factories with large footprints—think again. On Thursday, May 17, 2012, I attended the Academy of Natural Science’s Urban Sustainability Forum, which focused on the topic “The Next Generation of Manufacturing in Philadelphia.” The resounding message was that manufacturing is not dead in Philadelphia; on the contrary, Philadelphia is poised to become a hot spot for urban manufacturing in the future—but it won’t necessarily be the type of manufacturing people traditionally think of.

Early Bird Savings Extended for PTS in Philadelphia!

Wed, 23 May 2012 01:44:00 +0000

APA is bringing the Planners Training Service (PTS) workshops to Philadelphia June 12 – 15. Four workshops, each focusing on a distinct aspect of sustainability, will be taking place, each over two days and carrying 14 CMs. This is a great opportunity to hear national experts in a local setting (Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown). The workshops are:

Comprehensive Planning for Sustainable Communities (cosponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)
Sustainable Transportation Planning (cosponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)
Planning for Change: Creating Resilient Communities
Sustainable Zoning and Development Controls

Early registration is through May 14 May 23! Rates for the workshops include an early registration discount, APA member discount, and AICP member discount. There is also a very reasonable APA student rate for the workshops. For more information and to register: http://www.planning.org/pts/2012/spr/

June 9: Bowling for the Community Design Collaborative

Wed, 23 May 2012 01:39:18 +0000

The Community Design Collaborative's

16th Annual Bowling Ball Event

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Erie Lanes, 1310 Erie Avenue, Philadelphia

Registration and Mixer: 6-7 PM

Bowling: 7-10 PM

Roll with the Community Design Collaborative for the Sweet Sixteen party for our annual Bowling Ball event. Join us for an evening of bowling, fun, food, and prizes at Erie Lanes, just one block from the Erie-Torresdale Station and minutes from Center City. Bring your A-game and most creative (and perhaps delightfully retro?) costumes and be a winner!

Proceeds from the Bowling Ball support the Collaborative and its volunteer efforts to strengthen neighborhoods through design.

May 31: Panel Discussion with Emma Wilcox and Damon Rich at the Print Center

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:59:46 +0000

On exhibit at the Print Center until July 28th is, “Emma Wilcox: Where it Falls,” a photography exhibit focusing on text installations on rooftops in Newark, New Jersey.

Held in conjunction with this exhibit will be a panel discussion featuring Emma Wilcox, Damon Rich, Urban Designer and Waterfront Planner for the City of Newark, and John Caperton, the Print Center’s curator. The panel will be held Thursday, May 31st at 6pm at the Print Center and is FREE and open to the public.

Now Hiring: This Week's Job Postings

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:12:28 +0000

Healthy week in jobsland, especially if you've been jonesing to work at the Office of Emergency Management.

1) Management and Budget Consultant - Public Financial Management - Philadelphia

2) Grants Administration and Operations Specialist - Managing Director's Office of Emergency Management - Philadelphia

3) Logistics Planning Coordinator - Managing Director's Office of Emergency Management - Philadelphia

4) Grants Administration and Operations Specialist - Managing Director's Office of Emergency Management - Philadelphia

5) Recovery Planning Coordinator - Managing Director's Office of Emergency Management - Philadelphia

6) Regional Integration Center Coordinator- Managing Director's Office of Emergency Management - Philadelphia

7) Fels Graduate Community Summer Internship - Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania - Glenside, PA

8) GIS Intern Position - Clean Air Council - Philadelphia

Full descriptions after the jump!

Will Your Company Be Seen at PA’s Largest Planning Event?

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:23:13 +0000

The PA Chapter 2012 Annual Conference offers excellent opportunities to sponsors, exhibitors and advertisers. Be a part of the largest annual gathering of Pennsylvania’s professional planners and planning officials by sponsoring, exhibiting or advertising at the event. The Conference Announcement, distributed in July 2012, is expected to reach 5,000 members of Pennsylvania’s planning community. This detailed booklet includes all sponsors, exhibitors, and advertisers who have confirmed their support by June 22, 2012, together with detailed information about the full conference program.

Maximize the benefit of these opportunities — confirm your arrangements with the PA Chapter by June 22, 2012.

Details available at www.planningpa.org. Click on “Annual Conference.”

June 29: Creative Place-Making at DVRPC

Mon, 21 May 2012 00:44:09 +0000

Please join DVRPC for an event about arts and economic development.

Creative Place-Making: Realizing the Potential of Arts and Culture in Community and Economic Development

Friday, 6/29/2012
9:30 AM - 2:00 PM
DVRPC's Conference Room
8th Floor, ACP Building
190 N. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA
www.dvrpc.org/directions

Please RSVP by Friday, June 22 to RCEDF_RSVP@dvrpc.org.

We will explore the connections between economic development, community building, reinvestment, and arts and cultural institutions. We will hear from Jane Golden, executive director of the renown Mural Arts Program, as well as from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and Rutgers University's Arts Build Communities program. Montgomery County Planning Commission will share its findings from an arts and culture "supply and demand" analysis. After lunch, attendees are invited to participate in a peer exchange during which participants will share updates on what we are doing to connect community development with arts and culture.

May 31: LEED Green Associate Exam Prep Course

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:06:54 +0000

LIVE EVENT IN PHILADELPHIA/CAMDEN, PA

1 Day | 8 AIA SD/HSW CE Hours

Provider: GreenCE, Inc.Learn from the experts at GreenCE, backed by decades of combined experience in the field! With this course and accompanying study materials, you’ll gain the confidence, knowledge, and strategies you need to take and PASS the LEED Green Associate Exam. We’ll help you add this reputable credential to your resume. Includes:

1-Day LEED Green Associate Exam Prep Course
Direct Access to Green building Experts
Comprehensive 250-page Study Guide
Hundreds of Interactive Online Practice Questions
Quick Study Sheets
Certificate of Completion to take Exam

WHEN: Thur. May 31, 2012

7:30am - 5:00pm (ET)

Senate Vote This Week Could Endanger the ACS

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:22 +0000

Last week the US House of Representatives passed a bill that contained the elimination of the Census Bureau’s “American Community Survey” (ACS). This week, that bill will face the Senate. As the ACS replaced the previous “long form,” it plays a significant role at the federal, state, and local level in helping to determine how resources are allocated as well as allowing us to recognize rapidly shifting demographics. The APA is encouraging members to contact their representatives to express the importance of holding on to this critical planning tool. Jason Jordan, Director, Policy & Governmental Affairs for APA is asking members:

Have your chapter join the national letter
Encourage your members to visit the APA online legislative action center to email their Senators on this issue (www.planning.org/policy and click on action center)
Spread the word about this issue. The APA policy blog has an article detailing the recent developments. (http://blogs.planning.org/policy)
Ask your state partner organizations and local governments to get engaged on this issue.

June 18: Green Building/Navy Yard Tour PDI

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:33:03 +0000

What Planners Should Know About Green Building in the Delaware Valley

Monday, June 18, 2012

8:30 (registration and breakfast)
8:45 to 12 noon (program)

Where: Energy Efficient Buildings Hub, 4747 S. Broad St., Building 101, Suite 210, Philadelphia, PA 19112

$25 for members & students, $35 for nonmembers
3 AICP CM Credits Anticipated

Click here to Register!

Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which existing and new buildings and their sites use energy, water, and materials and reducing their impacts on human health and the environment. The Delaware Valley is an emerging center of the national green building movement. Located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub (EEB Hub, formerly the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster or GPIC) was established through a $122 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop innovative energy efficient building technologies, designs, and systems. On June 18 the EEB Hub will host a unique opportunity for planners to learn about green building planning, policies, and programs at the regional, state, and federal levels from a panel of leading experts in the field--including an opportunity to tour the Navy Yard's Building 661, where the EEB Hub will be doing a comprehensive energy retrofit.

Now Hiring: This Week's Job Postings

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:16:32 +0000

Congrats, grads! This one's for you.

1) Neighborhood Advisory Committee Coordinator/Program Administrator - South Kensington Community Partners - Philadelphia

2) Planner - Chester County Planning Commission - West Chester, PA

3) Part-time Residential Field Sales Agent - Green Mountain Energy Company - Philadelphia

4) Philly4Philly Fellow - Citizen Effect - Philadelphia

5) Web UI/UX Designer - Azavea - Philadelphia

6) Full-Year VISTA: Community Engagement, Leadership & Stabilization - New Kensington Community Development Corporation - Philadelphia

7) Neighborhood Advisory Committee Coordinator/Program Administrator - South Kensington Community Partners - Philadelphia

8) Assistant Director - Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. - Philadelphia

9) Executive Director - Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PICC) - Philadelphia

10) Communications Associate - Public Interest GRFX - Philadelphia

11) Design Associate - Public Interest Network - Philadelphia

12) CEO Assistant - BFW Group - Philadelphia/Ardmore

Full descriptions after the jump!

Help Build a Giant Model of Newark

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:16:26 +0000

We are looking for volunteers to join the team producing Plan It Newark!, an exhibition and video to help Newark residents understand how development happens and provide tools to advocate for their neighborhood and city.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

May 14-18, there will be a model workshop at NJIT to assemble the central piece of the City Hall exhibition: a large-scale model of the entire city, 14 by 14 feet!

Workshops will be held everyday in two daily sessions, 10 am-2 pm and 2 pm-6 pm at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

WHERE DO I GO?

New Jersey School of Architecture
Weston Hall Room 768
367 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd at Warren Street (entrance on Warren)
map: http://bit.ly/IH8qjT

2012 Irving Hand Award Supports Mediation and Its Planning Value

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:12:18 +0000

I was fortunate to be awarded the 2012 Irving Hand Award, which APA-PA awards annually. Named after Irving Hand, FAICP and funded by Delta Development, the award funds a professional development activity for a planner. My proposal was to use the funding for mediation training, and I recently completed the first portion of my training. Mediation is defined as a process where a neutral third party without decision making authority assists parties in negotiating a mutually agreeable settlement. The process attracted me because as a community planner I frequently feel like that third party, trying to get a community and its many interests to come to an agreement on an issue – should we inventory our historic resources? should we regulate our historic resources? should we change the zoning in this area? should we be providing more active recreation area? I found the training encouraging, enlightening, and also a reinforcement of good planning practice, and would recommend it to any planner. To read my full write-up on the training, check out the APA-PA Spring 2012 Newsletter.

June 7: NJ Historic Preservation Conference

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:24:39 +0000

The 2012 NJ Historic Preservation Conference, “Sustaining the Past – Inventing the Future” is being held June 7th at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. The annual event is an opportunity to explore a historic community, learn from peers about architectural and planning preservation methods from real-life case studies, discuss stewardship models for historic sites, and discover new partnerships in session and through professional networking. Educational classes and workshops are offered for architects and planners seeking continuing education credits, stewards of historic sites used for educational and community purposes, archeologists, cultural landscape specialists, historians, preservation planners and students, municipal historic preservation commission members and appointed officials, heritage tourism providers, and more. CM approval of sessions is pending.

The conference welcomes keynote speaker Steve Mouzon, architect, urbanist, and photographer. Steve’s recent book, The Original Green, frames sustainability in common-sense, plain-spoken terms, and he will address sustainability and historic preservation using real life examples from around the country.

Green Building in the Delaware Valley

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:47:12 +0000

Exciting news! Greenbuild 2013, the world’s largest green building conference/expo and a program of the U.S. Green Building Council, will be held in Philadelphia from November 20 to 22 of next year. (This year’s conference will be in San Francisco from November 14-16.) The Delaware Valley Green Building Council (DVGBC) is the official USGBC host chapter for Greenbuild 2013, which is expected to attract over 30,000 attendees. DVGBC “works to inspire, educate, and connect people around green building practices that will transform our communities into healthier, more prosperous places for people to live, work and learn.”

In anticipation of next year’s conference, DVGBC has issued the Greenbuild 2013 Challenge. This challenge calls for organizations, companies, schools, and others to commit to specific action by November 2013 to advance sustainability. Examples of pledges made to date include: Lafayette College will implement a Climate Action Plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 20%; the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub (formerly GPIC) will support five full spectrum energy efficiency retrofits in regional commercial buildings; and the PA/DE American Society of Landscape Architects will challenge its membership to design 13 projects that qualify for the Sustainable Sites Initiative (a sustainable land development and management rating system) and institute a sustainability plan for its operations. Here at WRT we have committed to having “1,000 conversations – to broaden and diversify the base of sustainability.”

CCPC Releases Spring 2012 Newsletter

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:07:30 +0000

You are invited to view the Chester County Planning Commission’s Spring 2012 eNewsletter. This edition, released on April 20th, covers discussion on the following topics:

Planning for Sustainability
New trends in open space planning
The county trail inventory- Providing alternatives to the automobile
Central Chester County Bicycle and Pedestrian Circulation Plan
Anticipating growth- population forecasts 2010-2040

You can access the eNewsletter here.

Now Hiring: This Week's Job Postings

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:01:52 +0000

Almost May, and new internship postings are still coming in!

1) Executive Director - City Parks Association - Philadelphia

2) Transportation Planner - Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission – Philadelphia

3) Marketing Assistant - Student Health Service (SHS), University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia

4) Intern - B. DeMichele Inc. - Media, PA

5) Environmental Planning Urban Forestry Intern - Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission – Philadelphia

6) Membership Director - PlanPhilly – Philadelphia

7) Design Associate - Public Interest Network – Philadelphia

8) Manager, Philly Food Innovation - The Enterprise Center – Philadelphia

Full descriptions after the jump!

June 6: Active Transportation Forum in Chester County

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:29:01 +0000

These days, it seems that more and more people are choosing active transportation for their daily commuting, errands, and recreation. Active transportation means human powered movement. During this information session, attendees will gain knowledge of what active transportation is and its importance as part of the transportation infrastructure network. Professional planners will be educated about the typical life-cycle of active transportation projects from advocacy to construction. They will learn the importance of planners, advocates, municipalities and engineers working together to reach a common goal. Speakers will share lessons learned through overcoming obstacles encountered on projects within the region. The Forum is co-hosted by the Chester County Planning Commission, Chester County Cycling Coalition, and Transportation Management Association of Chester County.

This event will be held at CFS, the School at Church Farms in Exton on June 6th. 3 CM Credits are pending. For more details and to register, click here.

Sad News: The Passing of Larry Waetzman

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:23:40 +0000

We're sad to report on the passing of Larry S. Waetzman, AICP, PP. His experience and credentials include:

Four decades of responsible professional planning experience
Charter member, American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP)
New Jersey licensed Professional Planner (PP 33LI00221300)
Master's degree, University of Wisconsin at Madison (1969)
Bachelor's degree, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA (1967)
Faculty member at continuing professional education seminars and invited speaker at national and regional planning conferences
Member: American Planning Association, American Society of Consulting Planners, Urban Land Institute, Pennsylvania Planning Association, New Jersey Planning Officials

Funeral details are after the jump.